FORT SMITH, Ark.—Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB), the city’s official destination marketing organization, announced Friday thatTrue West Magazine has designated Fort Smith as a Top Ten True Western Town of 2018. This is the thirteenth year True West has presented this annual award. Editors base their selection on criteria demonstrating how each town has preserved its history through historic buildings, museums and other institutions, events, and promotions of historic resources.

Fort Smith National Historic Site

Judge Parker’s Court

Fort Smith Gallows Replica

Mention Fort Smith and people will likely think of the Hanging Judge, Isaac Parker, who sent 79 men to the gallows between 1875 and 1896. His federal courtroom is still located at what is now known as the Fort Smith National Historic Site. Here, visitors can also see the jail cells which held the doomed outlaws and criminals, see a replica of the Fort Smith Gallows, and retrace the city’s colorful frontier heritage through interactive exhibits, living history programs, and even walk a paved portion of the Trail of Tears Path and visit the ruins of the first military fort that gave birth to Fort Smith on Christmas Eve in 1817.

Make plans to visit Fort Smith in 2018 during the yearlong Fort Smith Bicentennial Celebration!

That is one reason Fort Smith received the top honor when the CVB first applied in 2013 and also why it is the only city which has remained within the top 5 designations every year thereafter. And this year, we are excited to congratulate our friends in Abilene, Kansas, who won the top 2018 honor! All of the Top 10 True Western Towns are featured in the February 2018 issue; on newsstands as of December 26, 2017.

“Fort Smith is a living legend when it comes to the Old West—and it’s more than just Judge Parker,” says True West Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell. “The way the legacy has been maintained, promoted and explained is a testament the efforts of local, state and federal officials. There’s no question that Fort Smith is a Top True Western Town.”